"Home is a Non place. Home is an utopia. You can experience in the most intense way, if you are away and you miss it; the actual home feeling is the homesickness. And even if you are not away, the home feeling nourish itself out of the missing, out of that, which does not anymore or not just yet exist. Because the memory and the longing are turning places into homes."

(p. 32, Schlink in Heimat als Utopie)

Transcarpathia is a region in the west of Ukraine, which is surrounded by the natural border of the Carpathian mountains and artificial borders of the countries Hungary, Slovakia and Rumania. Within the 20th century it used to belong to 7 different countries: till 1918 it belonged to Hungary, then for 20 years to Czech Slovakia, for two weeks it became an autonomous country, then, till 1944, it belonged to Hungary, then to Soviet Union and since 1991 to new founded Ukraine. Nowadays the area is quite dismissed by the Ukraine government. The area statistically has about 80 till 90 percent unemployment and the most people have their own land and animals in order to get their food. Nowadays a lot of different nationalities and religions are settled in this region, and dependent on the proportion of nationality and religion the language and time is set to Ukrainian or Hungarian, which is one hour behind, time.

A situation which a lot of different countries are facing. Above all east European Countries, like Rumania, Hungary, Slovakia or Slovenia are dealing with this problem. These countries, which were part of a the big Habsburger kingdom, were split up and since then it seems more than a game then ruling countries: Borders were changed and countries were founded according to their geographical location and political interests rather than according to their history, language or culture. Thereby there has been no consideration for the society and culture of the people, who have to deal with the outcome.

I was travelling in Transcarpathia. Talking to people from different national and religious background I tried to find answers on my search for identity.